Page 151 of Tapeworld Induction

“I am? How?” Jewel said, her voice straining.

Elodie joined them beside Jewel. “Greetings.” She leaned on one of the nearby occupied gurneys, regaining her composure from climbing the stairs.

“You could have told me you were so close when I called, Elodie,” Dylan said in frustration.

“And risk alerting this one?” She pointed at Jewel with her chin. “So. What’s your plan, Ms Colt?”

53

Shining

Isaak

Astrid’s eyes darted back to him like headlights. She walked around him, the black tendrils of tape binding his wrists and ankles tight, keeping him sitting and still. Talia’s glass pod still hovered in the air.

“You’re so much like your father. Proud. Stubborn. Foolish.”

Isaak turned his face away. “What the fuck are you saying?” Astrid had been a blight on his family since the beginning, it turned out. “You went after my father, too?”

“I played your parents against each other. What can I say…? Your mother was more useful to me if she gave herself completely.”

Had his father fallen for Astrid’s machinations all those years ago? Could she have been controlling him, like she’d been trying to do to him and Dylan? Did that mean his dad wasn’t entirely to blame for everything that had…?

Oh, Dad. I miss you.

Astrid knelt down next to Isaak, shifting her weight onto him, basting him in the smell of her chest, an intoxicating aroma of flowers and sulphur. “I wish things had gone differently between us…” She grabbed his shoulders and licked his forehead, fighting off his protests. “Maybe we can still be together.”

She got up, looked back at him, and laughed. She held her arms out and sheets of plastic armour sleeved out over them, black and red and shining. The material wrapped around her chest and waist, leaving her legs, and the plant-leaf tattoos, exposed.

“There’s just one problem. This Dylan of yours. I don’t think she’s your type,” she said haughtily, entertaining only herself. Astrid clapped her hands excitedly. “Your warrior lover left the Tapeworld temporarily, but I’m sure she won’t be long. She’ll want to come get you.” She licked her lips, her features darkening.

“Don’t you dare hurt her—”

“Or what? You’ll find a way to free yourself from those bindings and punish me?” She leaned forward. “Mmm… Maybe I would like that.”

He swallowed down nausea. “Goddess, you’re a freak.”

“Too early to be calling me a goddess, Ike. I still have to become a Tech Queen first.”

There would be no stopping this woman if they let her plans continue, her ambition matched only by the kink that she brought into everything. The Tapeworld was her playground. And he’d helped her bend it to her will. Were any of those data heists real, or just tests of her mind control?

“What have you been having me steal?” he asked.

“Oh, Isaak. I’m not a movie villain. I’m not going to tell you every detail of my plan so you can find a way to stop it.” Astrid laughed. “It’s tempting though…” She kept walking around him in a circle, now wearing gunmetal red heels that clicked on the marbled floor. “I just want people to love me.” Astrid traced a heart over her chest. “Is that really so much to ask for?!”

“You’re not asking!” Isaak shouted. “You’re forcing people to do it. Release them! Keep me, if you must, to satisfy your obsession with my family!” His arms and wrists ached against the tendrils.

“Come now, Ike. You’re too good, too exceptional, to be pulling this sacrificial bullshit!” Astrid spat. “You’re better than all these worms put together.”

“It’s not bullshit.”

“Tell me you wouldn’t give up all these poor trapped people for a chance to be back in the game? Playing ReSports again in front of adoring crowds, so your Dylan gets to see you in your full glory. Shining under a thousand spotlights, like you rightfully deserve!”

His bottom lip trembled, his cheeks warm. A cold sweat ran down his back. He remained silent, eyes on the floor.

“Imagine. Your gorgeous blue-blonde Dylan cheering you on from the stands, the Millenium Dome all lit up, just for you… Wouldn’t you kill all of my sleptigrades just so you could get your knee back?”

He stared at her, unable to speak. His chest was exploding.